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JEFFERIES LAND

JEFFERIES' LAND

A History of Swindon and its Environs

BY THE LATE

RICHARD JEFFERIES

EDITED WITH NOTES BY

GRACE TOPLIS

LONDON

Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co Ltd

WELLS, SOMERSET: ARTHUR YOUNG

MDCCCXCVI

1

JEFFERIES LAND

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. ANCIENT SWINDON

II. HOLYROOD CHURCH

III. SWINDON IN 1867

IV. UPPER UPHAM

V. LIDDINGTON WICK

VI. THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD

VII. THE DEVIZES ROAD

VIII. THE OXFORD ROAD

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAP

1. IVY-CHURCH. AVEBURY FONT Frontispiece

2. JEFFERIES' HOUSE, VICTORIA STREET, SWINDON

3. THE LAWN, SWINDON

4. RUINS OF HOLYROOD CHURCH

5. THE RESERVOIR, COATE

6. WANBOROUGH CHURCH

7. ENTRANCE TO SWINDON FROM COATE

8. MARLBOROUGH LANE

9. DAY HOUSE FARM, COATE

10. CHISLEDON CHURCH

11. JEFFERIES' HOUSE, COATE

12. WEST WINDOW, FAIRFORD CHURCH

NOTE.—The illustrations are reproductions from drawings by Miss Agnes Taylor, Ilminster, mostly from photograph taken especially by Mr. Chas. Andrew, Swindon.

1

JEFFERIES LAND

INTRODUCTION

LIFE teaches no harder lesson to any man than the bitter truth—as true as bitter— that "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house."

And foremost among modern prophets who have had to realize its bitterness stands Richard Jefferies, the "prophet" of "field and hedgerow" and all the simple daily beauty which lies about us on every hand. The title of "The Painter of the Downs" might be given to him, as it was to the veteran artist H. G. Hine, for his glorification of his native country in wordpictures as vivid and glowing as the colours on the canvas.

But Wiltshire never realized, during his lifetime, the greatness of the man whom she had reared, and it is open to question whether she honours his memory now. "I can't see what

people find to admire in his books, I can see nothing in them" has been said again and again by those who live among the sights and scenes which he loved so well, and made familiar to jaded readers in the town.

For Sir Walter Besant was right. It is the Londoner who appreciates what Jefferies has to tell of "the Life of the Fields." " Why, we must have been blind all our lives; here were the most wonderful things possible going on under our very noses, but we saw them not. Nay, after reading all the books and all the papers—every one—that Jefferies wrote between the years 1876 and 1887, after learning from him all that he had to teach, I cannot yet see these things. I see a hedge; I see wild rose, honeysuckle, black briony—herbe aux femmes battues, the French poetically call it—blackberry, hawthorn, and elder. I see on the banks sweet wildflowers, whose names I learn from year to year, and straightway forget because they grow not in the streets. I know very well, because Jefferies has told me so much, what I should be able to see in the hedge and on the bank besides these simple things; but yet I cannot see them, for all his teaching. Mine—alas!—are eyes which have looked into shop windows and across crowded streets for half a century, save for certain intervals every year; they are helpless eyes when they are turned from men and women to flowers, ferns, weeds, and grasses; they are, in fact, like unto the eyes of those men with whom I mostly consort. None of us—-poor street-struck creatures—can see the things we ought to see”.

These are the readers who appreciate Jefferies. And of these are formed the elect forty thousand who feel the charm of his written words. "His own country" may question his right to be numbered among her great men, but he is safe in his own niche in the Campo Santo of English Literature, and neither neglect nor disparagement avail now for hurt or wounding

.

In a handy little Tourist's Guide to Wiltshire, Mr. R. N. Worth says: "Wiltshire needs not to be ashamed of its worthies," and gives a list of honoured names; but the name of Richard Jefferies is not on his list. "Save in his own country, and in his own house”. The spell of Jefferies Land must be sought in his later books: Wild Life in a Southern County, Wood Magic, Round About a Great Estate, etc., etc.; or, better still, it may be sought—and found—on a summer's day by any wayfarer on the Downs who possesses a seeing heart and eye. But, in his early days, Jefferies could find no utterance for the vision which came to him, and yet, even then, in his crudest and most unformed period, he was loyal to his country, and desired to do it honour. His History of Swindon and its Environs was written in the days when he worked for the North Wilts Herald, in which the last pages appeared in June, 1867, when he had but a boy's second-hand acquaintance with the facts and traditions he collected so laboriously, "I visit every place I have to refer to, copy inscriptions, listen to legends, examine antiquities, measure this, estimate that; and a thousand other employments essential to a correct account take up my time. . . . To give an instance. There is a book published some twenty years ago founded on a local legend. This I wanted, and have actually been to ten different houses in search of it; that is, have had a good fifty miles' walk, and as yet all in vain. However, I think I am on the right scent now, and believe I shall get it.”

There was no sparing of time and labour in this early work of his. Let this be remembered before it receives harsh judgment. In the preface to The Early Fiction of Richard Jefferies, obvious criticism is anticipated, and reasons are given for the republication of his boyish writings. The latter may be quoted in this volume. "Why then do these early efforts make their appearance in this permanent book-form ? ''For two reasons; the least worthy of which is, that a book-lover yearns to make his collection complete, and the Juvenilia of other great writers are 'taken as read' and placed with their fellows lest one link should be missing. But the reason for the student is that they illustrate—as can be done by no comment from outsiders—the mental growth of the man, and his unusually slow development as a writer. This is why they possess interest in the eyes of a Jefferiesian student, and why they are offered to the reading public as intellectual curios."

The task, therefore, of editing his History of Swindon presented some unusual difficulties,

due to two facts—that it was written during the period of his immaturity; and that thirty years have elapsed since he wrote it. The first difficulty lay in the style of his writing, in his authoritative pronouncements on matters antiquarian far beyond the bounds of his boyish knowledge of the past; the second difficulty lay in the changes which thirty years have brought to Swindon, and in the difference between the Then and the Now. After much consideration, it seemed better to issue the book as his work, and as he wrote it, with all its merits or faults as the reader may pronounce. To bring the History of Swindon up to date, to eliminate all the "facts" which time has disproved, to revise his "antiquarian" statements with the fuller knowledge of a later day, would possibly have resulted in a more useful book of reference, but it would not have been the work of Richard Jefferies. The Editors task has been confined, therefore, to mere annotation and explanation of what the young Jefferies wrote; and if local antiquarian societies will do it the honour of rectifying crude judgments, and disproved "facts" so much the better for the wider public of readers whom this volume will never reach.

GRACE TOPLIS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In addition to the usual historical works of reference, the following authorities have been consulted:—

Wiltshire, extracted from Domesday BookH.P. Wyndham.

Wiltshire. The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F.R.S. Aubrey.

A.D. 1659-70. Corrected and Jackson. enlarged by J. E. Jackson. 1862

Beauties of Wiltshire. 1825 J. Britton.

The Natural History of Wiltshire. Edited and Elucidated by J. Aubrey

Britton. 1847 Britton.

Tracts relating to Wiltshire. 1856-72. J.E.Jackson.

Annales of England. 1615 Stow—Howes.

History of England under the Norman

Kings. Translated from Lappenberg..

German of Dr. Lappenberg, by Thorpe.

Benjamin Thorpe. 1857

Dictionary of National Biography Ed. Leslie Stephen.

Autobiography of John Britton. 1850. Britton.

Ancient Hills. Roman Era . . Sir R. Hoare.

History of the Rebellion. Edited by Macray. 1888.... Clarendon.

History and Antiquities of the Duchy of Lancaster. 1817 Gregson.

Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine : "The White Horses of Wiltshire." W. C. Plenderleath.

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Thomas Percy.

Six Old English Chronicles. (Ethelwerd, Richard of Cirencester, etc.)...... A. Giles.

The Fairford Windows. Monograph. Rev. J. G. Joyce.

Round the Works of our Great Railways.

......

Swindon: Fifty Years Ago, More or Less...... W. Morris, Swindon.

JEFFERIES' LAND

A History of Swindon and its Environs


CHAPTER I

ANCIENT SWINDON

THE early history of Swindon is involved in obscurity. The works by whose aid the mist of antiquity has in many places been considerably cleared away, until the outline at least, if not the details, of the structure our forefathers reared, is perceivable, here give no assistance. There does not appear to have ever been a monastery at Swindon. Its streets no doubt have been perambulated by the massthanes, the hooded noblemen of the cloisters, but they do not seem to have ever taken up a permanent residence. There is no chronicle of Swindon, so the want which the monks supplied in other places is severely felt here. It is impossible to compile an uninterrupted narrative. Facts there are, and traditions there are, scattered up and down a long vista of years; but no art, short of fiction, could combine them into a chronicle. It does not appear that any great event of national importance ever took place at Swindon —no royal murder or marriage; no battle seems to have been fought, no castle built, not even a castrament remains in Swindon itself to bear a witness to bygone deeds of blood— blood which writes itself so indestructibly wherever it has been spilt. Hence no writer, no historian, mentions Swindon, nor gives any account of it as a place the memory of which was worth preserving for what had occurred there.

Even the etymology of the name Swindon is uncertain. The most probable conjecture assigns its origin to the Danes. In the year 993 the celebrated Sweyn[1] king of Denmark, accompanied by Olave,[2] king of Norway, made his first piratical descent upon the coast of England. Though bought off several times, he invariably returned with increased forces, and at length, coming to Bath, received the homage of the western thanes, or noblemen, and ascended the throne of England. This was in the year 1013 A.D. Sweyn was much of his time in the western counties, hence it is conjectured that Swindon means no more than Sweyn's-don, dune, or hill—the hill of Sweyn. Dune, now usually pronounced don, was a Saxon word for hill—it survives still in down, of which there is a sufficiency in the neighbourhood. Should this conjecture be correct, it would follow that Sweyn must have had some connection with this place, resided here, or made it the scene of some of his exploits. Strange to say, this Sweyn seems to be the first and the last royal celebrity who came into connection with Swindon. In eight centuries nothing of national importance is recorded as taking place here, except this visit of Sweyn, and even that is a matter of supposition. This is tolerably good evidence that the town was for many hundred years of little or no importance. A history of Swindon, properly so-called, would not extend over a period of more than one hundred years: yet the place seems to have existed for eight hundred years. The only way in which its existence can be rendered evident is by tracing the descent of the surrounding landed property from owner to owner.

The first of whom any record appears to exist as possessing land at Swindon was Earl William, a celebrated nobleman in the days of Edward the Confessor, whose reign extended from 1042 to 1066. The domain of Swindon had in all probability previously belonged to the Crown, since it is mentioned that Earl William held it by right of charter, and to the Crown it again returned about 1050 A.D., that nobleman exchanging it for an estate in the Isle of Wight. In what manner it became sub-divided does not seem recorded, but when Domesday Book was compiled by order of William the Conqueror—between 1082 and 1086—the lands at Swindon were in the possession of five persons. Three of these were small, and the remaining two extensive proprietors. All were public men, attendants upon the Conqueror, probably Normans, who came into possession by right of conquest, as a reward for following their master. The first in point of grandeur, celebrity, and the extent of his possessions, was no less a person than Odin[3]. chamberlain to the Conqueror. The second was the Bishop of Bayeux. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux—of course a Norman, for at that date there does not seem to have been a single British bishop who rendered himself infamous by his tyranny and ambition. When an insurrection broke out in the north, occasioned by the intolerable oppression of another Norman bishop, he of Bayeux marched there with an army, slaughtered the inhabitants, and though an ecclesiastic, actually plundered the cathedral of Durham. He was now found to have a design on the Papacy, and set sail for Rome, attended by a retinue of knights and barons, when King William, who scarcely desired to see a vassal of his an infallible pope, met him off the Isle of Wight, and seized him with his own hands. The bishop cried out that he was a "clerk and minister of the Lord."

"I condemn not a clerk or a priest, but my count, whom I set over my kingdom," replied the king, and he was sent as a prisoner to Normandy.[4]

Such was the Bishop of Bayeux, whilom owner of a great portion of the land registered in Domesday Book as Swindon. His history reveals what will now appear a strange state of matters. When Swindon was in its infancy eight centuries ago, a bishop commanded an army, and plundered a cathedral, than which two things it would be impossible to name others more opposed to what is at present considered the mission of a clerical dignitary. Moreover, he was the "count whom I set over my kingdom." Here is a bishop, a count, a general, and a robber, all in one. Could anything show more conclusively the confusion which followed close upon the Conquest ?

Under the Bishop of Bayeux there were two tenants; they were named Wadard, hence they were probably related. Alured of Marlborough also held land at Swindon. He seems to have been a very extensive proprietor in North Wilts at that date. One Uluric, too, owned property here, and the fifth was Ulward, the king's prebendary, whatever that may mean.

The lands registered as Swindon in Domesday Book afterwards received distinctive names. There was Haute, High, or Over Swindon, Nether Swindon and Even Swindon. Haute, High, or Over Swindon was undoubtedly upon the hill. Over is a prefix not uncommonly found before names of places indicating their position to be over, or above that town whence they drew their origin, or with which they were connected. An instance is Overtown at Wroughton, which still retains its name, and whose position indicates its origin, being situated high up upon the hill over-looking Wroughton. Besides Haute, Nether, and Even Swindon, there was Wicklescote, now known as Westlecott. It may be observed that north-east of Westlecott is a hill known as Iscott hill. Cot comes from a Saxon word meaning habitation, and is still preserved in cottage. It is probable that these two places— Westlecott and Iscott—have been the seat of habitations from the earliest times. Wicklescote afterwards belonged to persons of the names of Bluet and Bohun. Bohun is a name very celebrated in English History during the reign of Edward I. That monarch proceeded to tax both clergy and laity at his pleasure, heedless of the Great Charter, but was at length compelled by Humphrey Bohun and Roger Bigod[5],two great noblemen, not only to confirm that charter, but to add a clause to it by which it was provided that the nation should never in future be taxed without the consent of Parliament, a wise enactment which has secured the property of the subject against the rapacity of rulers, and also proved the foundation of England's wealth. All honour to the illustrious Humphrey Bohun.

Wicklescote was then held under the manor of Wootton Bassett. Later, in the reign of Edward III., who occupied the throne from 1327 to 1377, the Everards and Lovells were proprietors. A Katherine Lovell, seemingly in the reign of Henry IV. (1399 to 1413), gave certain lands at Wicklescote to Lacock Abbey, which, at the dissolution of monasteries—which took place in the year 1535—were bought by John Goddard, Esq., of Upper Upham. Sir Edward Darell, of Littlecote, near Hungerford, had lands here in the early part of the reign of Edward VI. John Wroughton had the manor in the seventh year of Henry VI., that is, in 1429.